The way that the Vietnam War is now remembered as the helicopter war, the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan may be remembered for the use of unmanned drones. Drones may facilitate remote intelligence gathering, alleviating the need for foot soldiers to enter into hostile areas “blind,” with little or no information about the location and strength of hostile forces. Drones may provide close combat support, such as identifying and eliminating targets of interest, alleviating the need to expose soldiers and/or airmen to potential small arms fire, mortars, rocket grenades, road-side bombs, anti-aircraft weaponry, missiles, and other dangers.
With aircraft generally there is a long felt need to enhance performance. Prior improvements include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,828 (fiber optics interconnected with cameras), U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880 (fiber optics interconnected with a column signal generator), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,410 (miniature gage control wiring). However, the operational capabilities of conventional aircraft and unmanned drones remain limited.